Defense does it: Red Raider girls dampen Dover’s spirits

ROCHESTER — In winning three straight games the Spaulding High School girls basketball team has hung its hat on defense.

None was bigger than Friday’s Division I 31-28 grind-it-out win over rival Dover.

The Green Wave had the ball with 12 seconds to play, trailing by one point (29-28). Katie Boyatsis, who scored a game-high 14 points, received the ball inbounds after two Dover timeouts. She drove right and with Spaulding’s Chloe Routhier and Ashley Lemery guarding her tightly, put up an off-balance 10-footer from the right baseline. It missed the rim and Emily Benway pulled down the rebound and was fouled with 2.6 seconds to go.

“I saw it go up and I didn’t see it going in,” Benway said. “She didn’t go up the way she usually does. I just jumped up and got the rebound.”

Benway, who scored the Red Raiders’ last five points and had a team-high 12 points, hit both foul shots, and Boyatsis’s last-ditch 3-pointer from halfcourt was off at the buzzer.

“We were just trying to contain her,” said Spaulding coach Karen Malsbenden of the shot by Boyatsis. “I said you can’t foul. You have to contain her and make her take a difficult shot.”

Spaulding, which has held its opponents to fewer than 30 points per game during its current streak, is now 4-9, while injury-riddled Dover fell to 5-7.

“We were pumped coming in,” Benway said. “We just knew we had to finish it off.”

Junior center Molly Wotton has been out of the Green Wave lineup for two weeks with a concussion and sophomore point guard Abby Tilton exacerbated a hip pointer late in the first quarter and was forced to sit the rest of the game.

“We have kids who can step in and are capable,” said Dover coach Dan Casey. “We just didn’t execute.”

Benway, who fouled out of Tuesday’s win over Concord with two points, came up big against Dover, particularly down the stretch.

“It’s a huge confidence booster for her, too,” Malsbenden said. “We’ve been tough on her and she responded tonight. Her play was huge.”

Benway had a steal and basket with 2:25 to play that put the Red Raiders up 28-24. She then rolled in a foul shot with 54.8 seconds to play that, as it turned out, gave Spaulding the lead for good, 29-28.

“I had my team behind me on that one,” said Benway with a laugh.

The Green Wave tied the game up before Benway stepped to the foul line on two free throws from Mercedes McDermott and Lauren O’Connor’s bucket in the lane.

From there it was a battle of attrition.

Boyatsis missed two shots for Dover. Spaulding turned the ball over on a travel, and Boyatsis missed again. The Red Raiders turned the ball over again, this time with 12 seconds to play when Routhier was trapped at halfcourt and stepped into the backcourt.

Dover got its chance to go ahead after the two timeouts, but Boyatsis was off once more and Benway muscled up for the big rebound and then hit both freebies

“We had a couple opportunities before that to take the lead,” Casey added. “We kept getting the turnovers on defense, but we couldn’t finish.”

Spaulding led 4-2 after the first quarter and 14-9 at the break, as Dover hit just 3 of 30 shots from the field in the first half. The Red Raiders were marginally better at 5 of 23.

Spaulding led by as many as seven in the third quarter (22-15) after an Ashley Lemery 14-footer, but the Green Wave went on an 8-0 tear to take its only lead, 23-22, early in the fourth quarter on two Boyatsis free throws.

Lemery (nine points) hit a trey with 5:41 to play to put the Red Raiders back up, 25-23.

Routhier added seven points for the Red Raiders.

“We make poor decisions in the moment,” Malsbenden said. “We have to limit those poor decisions; either a poor shot or a turnover. It gives the other team the ball and they come back to score.”

Spaulding plays at Manchester Central Tuesday, while Dover hosts Keene the same night.